


Stop and Stare

by o_b_s_e_s_s_e_d



Series: Assorted Songfics [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Reveal, adrien needs relief, be free my child, he cries, i tried i guess, kissingggg, ladybug has regrets, nobody's perfect, not in relation to anything else ive written, why do i always make people cry???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 12:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12232707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/o_b_s_e_s_s_e_d/pseuds/o_b_s_e_s_s_e_d
Summary: Adrien is struggling with a big decision he needs to make. One song may be the tipping point for him, until he meets up with someone he hasn't seen in years.I don't own this show or song, all rights go to respective creators and writers.





	Stop and Stare

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this when I should've been doing math homework and I have regrets now

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45hn-OcwMUE> Here's an audio to the song in case you need it!

 

Adrien put his head in his hands as he sat at his desk. Work was getting to him, and he knew it. The telltale signs of wear and tear were appearing all over his face, in the breakouts on his forehead and the bags under his eyes.

Paris wasn’t the city he’d once loved as a teenager. The press was all over his life now, trying to make it seem more interesting than it was, trying to uncover a scandal that never existed in the first place. It was a dream now to get out of France, out of Europe, and travel to America, to New York. To get away from this place and his father and the press.

It would be an escape...

One his father would never let him carry through with.

Frustrated, Adrien smacked his palm on the table, reaching for his phone. His hand met the cool glass surface of his screen and he quickly unlocked it, pulling up a relaxing playlist on his phone, and went to stand by his enormous windows.

He immediately regretted the music when the first riffs of a guitar filled his room.

 _This town is colder now. I think it’s sick of us._ Being Chat Noir wasn’t as thrilling anymore. Hawkmoth hadn’t attacked in years, so both he and Ladybug had decided to put their powers to rest. Sometimes he changed just to leap from building to building, but without his friend, sidekick, love of his life at his side, it was futile to keep pretending he was something he wasn’t.

 _It’s time to make our move, I’m shaking off the rust._ Adrien snorted.

“How?” He said aloud. How would he leave? How _could_ he go? It was impossible.

 _I’ve got my heart set...on anywhere but here._ Adrien turned to the world map hanging on his wall, a pin set directly on New York City. It was small enough so that his father couldn’t see it, (not that he visited Adrien’s room to begin with), but it was like a beacon of light for him.

 _Stop and stare...I think I’m moving but I go nowhere._ Are there others that feel the way he did? Were there really people out there, teenagers, adults, children, who felt as trapped as he was, behind the four walls of his room, the bulletproof car, the studio and then back to his room?

 _Yeah I know that everyone gets scared…_ That was it wasn’t it? He was afraid. Just a _scaredy cat_ . Someone who couldn’t stand up to his father, who was just a person. Just a single man. Adrien was bigger than him, and he knew it. Adrien was the reason his father hadn’t fallen apart after all these years, but if he got up and left maybe he would. Would that be satisfying? To watch Father crumble? To watch the thing that had been in charge of his every breath since as long as he could remember finally not have a hold on him anymore? He didn’t love his father-not in the way normal people did, like Marinette to _her_ father, but Adrien didn’t want to see him break, didn’t want to see him collapse.

This was too much to think about in the cage he was in.

“Plagg, transform me!” He left the song playing on his desk, but it didn’t matter because he knew every line by heart.

 _They’re trying to come back...all my senses push…_ The night Parisian sky smiled down as Chat Noir padded silently from rooftop to rooftop, instinct taking over and his mind going blank.

It felt...good. Better than it had in years past. Slowly, slowly, the stress he’d been under all day were flaking away, until it was just him and the stars.

 _Steady feet don’t fail me now. I’m gon’ run til you can’t walk._ He found himself at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower, and energy flowed through his veins as he swung up and around the iron bars of the building, taking himself back to fourteen. As he stood on the top, he looked down, the nostalgia of being a superhero rushed back to him.

Everything had happened on top of this building. His first love, the first time a girl saw him cry, his first kiss, his first goodbye. He didn’t want to leave it. Could he leave the old memories and make new ones-better ones?

 _Something pulls my focus out...and I’m standing down…_ As if it was a music video, Adrien caught a flash of red in his vision, heard the zip of a yo-yo as Ladybug landed perfectly on the ledge of the Tower. She was breathing heavily-and not from exertion.

“Ladybug?” The word burst out of him, and when she turned, her bluebell eyes piercing the night, he slumped, weak in the knees.

“Chat…” Adrien didn’t hesitate-he ran forward, falling into her arms. It was so right and so perfect, and he was so broken that he burst into tears.

“Minou, minou,” she whispered, her own voice thick, and she sat so she was practically cradling him in her lap. “What is it? What’s wrong? Please don’t cry.” A hand stroked his head and the motion was soothing.

“I miss you. I love you. I mean-I...I…” He tilted his face to look into hers. “I want to go. I _have_ to go.” She waited until he’d cried out all his tears, petting him and murmuring to him every once in a while.

“Go where?” She asked, breaking the silence that had formed between them.

“New York,” he said immediately. “Away from my father. Away from this city.”

“Away from me?” Ladybug said softly, and Adrien’s heart plummeted. He crawled out of her embrace, unable to look at her.

“You were the one who said we should stop meeting.” He was unable to keep the accusation out of his voice and his claws dug into his palms. They were quiet again for a second and she finally said, “I’ve been regretting it ever since.”

The song echoed back at Adrien. _It’s time to make our move…_

He took her hands in his, and they stood, bathing in the moonlight. Adrien was finally able to see her face, taking in the curve of her cheeks, the sprinkle of freckles, the mask hiding who she truly was.

“My Lady…” he whispered. “I’ve been regretting everything since the day I was born. I have to go to America. I have to break the chains that are weighing me down.” He pulled her slightly closer so they were standing toe to toe. “You know that you have been the light of my life. You know that my world revolved around you.” His heart was pounding, these words coming from nowhere. The gloved hands he was clutching were attached to someone he never wanted to let go.

“Ladybug...Before I leave…” His gaze clashed with hers, and his lips soon followed. Their kissing was feverish, and he was dizzy with longing and emotion and the neglect she’d given him for so long. His hands were clutching her waist, claws digging into the small of her back, and her hands were raking through his hair, unable to allow any bit of space between the two of them.

Time no longer existed.

Her teeth grazed his bottom lip and his breath hitched, stars bursting behind his eyelids. He was forever lost in her mouth and the feel of her body in his arms, swallowing up all her hums and little gasps. He pulled apart slightly, trying to restrain himself. Her blue eyes were dark, and her lashes fluttered as her cheeks pinked, and then reddened. 

“Before I leave," he panted, licking swollen lips, "I need to know who you are. Nobody else has to know-it’ll be between the two of us.” Ladybug’s arms were around his neck, and she looked down at their feet. She didn’t respond, for so long that he was afraid that he’d overstepped a boundary, but she was surrounded by pink light and in front of him stood Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Had he been fifteen he would’ve thrown himself from the Tower.

But it made sense now. The strength, the love she had, the inability to let injustices slide. It was all Ladybug and Marinette, Marinette and Ladybug.

She bit her lip and glanced up, worried.

“It’s just me. Plain old Marinette.” She sighed and hung her head, like her identity was something she was ashamed of.

“You’re perfect,” Adrien whispered. “And I’m...not…” He closed his eyes and let himself be washed in the green light of his transformation. Marinette let out a gasp and immediately stepped back. His body was cold without her, and he opened his eyes. She was standing with her hands over her mouth, her face pale.

He took his own step back, discouraged by her reaction.

“This is me,” he said, hardly hearing the words over the noise in his head. Marinette stepped forward, burying her face in his shoulder, holding him tight.

“I’m so happy it’s you.” Her words didn’t make sense for a moment. “I’ve been struggling for so long between the two of you, between Adrien and Chat. But I don’t have to anymore because you’re the same person. I’m so happy Adrien, and yes I love you too, as both my silly kitty and as my best friend.”

Standing there in the moonlight, he knew she meant it. Every word. He wrapped his arms around her, and they stood together, the world balancing out.

They pulled apart, and they were back to gazing one another.

“Good luck in America,” Marinette said softly. “I’ll catch up with you soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed this one-shot! Feedback is super welcome and don't forget to leave kudos and check out my other works if you're interested!


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